The Calgary Roughnecks (0-1) look to rebound after a tough road loss to start the season when they host the Colorado Mammoth (1-1) for their home opener at Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
“[Toronto] taught us a lesson,” said Roughnecks head coach Curt Malawsky. “It comes down to compete. I thought Toronto out-competed us all over the floor. They went on three separate three-goal runs, and a five-goal run. We answered back with one four-goal run. That really doesn’t get it done in this league.”
The Rock jumped into the first quarter with one of those three-goal runs. By the half, Toronto was up 9-4 while he game ended with a final score of 16-11.
“Our guys need to step up and follow the leads,” Malawsky added. “I know a lot of them have promised better efforts, I know the character and passion we’ve got with this group, especially our leadership group. They’re going to answer the bell. Tough loss, but we’re going to learn from it, and we’re coming back real hungry. We’re excited to get back home.”
‘Home’ being the Scotiabank Saddledome, where major flooding last summer left many wondering if the season would be played elsewhere.
“They ended up losing pretty much everything,” said Roughnecks transition player Geoff Snider, who picked up a goal and grabbed 18 loose balls in the loss to Toronto.
Everything from the ground floor, to the ninth row of the lower bowl, was completely submerged in muddy water. After an estimated 650,000 man-hours of clean up, the ‘Dome is back where is needs to be to start the season.
“The city really rallied behind it,” Snider added. “The [Calgary Flames & Roughnecks] organization did a great job of getting that building ready.” Snider said that playing in front of a home crowd makes a big difference, especially for a home-opener.
“There’s a lot of buzz around (Calgary) right now… a lot of excitement. It’s going to be a great test for us, playing a Mammoth team who’s got two games under their belt.”
